Pro-ISIS hackers Team System DZ take on Sweden

The last we heard from the Algerian hacking crew of anti-Israeli ISIS sympathizers called Team System DZ, they were exulting in very poor English about a string of over 200 defaces. The attacks focused on Canadian WordPress sites, the excuse being that Canada had recently officially committed to joining the US-led anti-ISIS coalition in the Middle East. No lasting damage was done.

Team System DZ, on the other hand, has opened and lost four Facebook groups/pages which remain offline, so I’m calling this one for Canada.

Now the hackers are attacking more widely: a search of hack-tracking website Zone H shows that over the past 48 hours they’ve successfully defaced approximately 75 sites. This time, they are primarily American sites, with a strange preponderance of crowd funding sites: Clickstartme, CrowdfunditAmerica, and CrowdItForward among them. Music site ClassicalLite revealed a few days ago that pro-peace Israeli rapper Kosha Dillz has also fallen victim to the deface. A spokesperson for the rapper, who actively advocates for cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli settlers, said, “The rapper believes his participation in activity with his country of Israel, as well as songs released w/ Diwon x IDF Soldier Dror Gomel entitled No More War,increased a vast amount of hate emails to his Facebook and Twitter accounts. The site states its dedication to killing America, Infidels and Israel sympathizers. It also shows pictures of American War planes and pictures of bloody Muslim women and children.” The website remains offline and the URL redirects to his Facebook page.

Elsewhere, the University of Miami’s Hillel site and Plantation, Florida Temple Kol Ami Emanu-El were also hacked. The Sun-Sentinel reports that it was in response to these hacks that the Anti-Defamation League reported Team System DZ’s groups to Facebook and had them taken down.

Despite having boasted on Facebook that “We will spend all the time for a massive number of attacks on American and Israeli websites, with God’s will they will be hacked. Curse upon America and Israel,” the damage on Israel has been minimal, with Anonymous’ #OpSaveGaza and #OpIsrael making a far bigger impact. Team System DZ did claim participation in #OpSaveGaza, but outside of the Anonymous-claimed Tangodowns, there’s nothing to suggest they were effective. No Team System DZ defaces were reported in Israel at the time.

Sweden is also in the crosshairs, with several defaces over the past few days. Sweden, while not sending troops to the coalition, has committed to $13 million in humanitarian aid. It was enough, apparently, to bring them to the attention of Team System DZ.

At their current, steady, rate of about 45 defaces a day, and 60 coalition members in Syria, they should run out of low-hanging fruit (ie easy-to-hack, insecure sites) sometime around 2114.